As part of their Budget/post Budget social media push, John Key’s accounts have released a behind the scenes video of Budget day. Many MPs, including the PM and the Minister of Finance do video blogs, some more regularly than others, but most of those are straight to camera type videos, filmed in the MPs office. The video that the PM’s accounts have posted are more akin to a staged documentary style.
Lately there has been a marked increase in the quality of photos coming out of the PM’s social media team. There are less of the soft, blurred, dark cellphone photo images that we are used to more high quality images that help to tell a story. This new video is potentially a sign that a similar improvement is going to take place with the moving images. There is a role for video blogs, as they are commonly done, but good quality video is more likely to attract attention and drive engagement.
Will the Labour Party follow the lead? I am not sure, they don’t appear to have been doing any regular video blogs recently. It takes time, and the right people, to develop the ability to produce videos of this quality. It also requires a commitment of time and energy from the MPs involved. I will be interested to see if National produce any more videos like this in the coming weeks and months, or is it going to be a one off?
